Biking and Brits

After Wednesday's bummer trip to Auschwitz, we needed a fun, last day in Krakow...fast becoming our new favorite place. "Wavelo" is an innovative online bike rental service where you pay a daily fixed fee, receive a pin and then hop on a bicycle at one of the many stations located all around Krakow. The bikes have GPS, are solar powered and with a pin you just unlock it and away you go. At the destination, you lock it back up at the bike station and walk to wherever you're going, returning to that station or another station and getting another bike. All for $10 over a twelve hour period. Unlimited on and off. So...off we went for an extended bike tour of Krakow. It's a very easy city to tour on a bike...compact, flat and pedestrian friendly. Cars always yield to people and bikes so it was a great way to travel. Beautiful weather too!

Krakow at night after the tour of Auschwitz

Our hotel bar

We biked over to Oskar Schindler's factory for a look...Andrea had prepared for this by downloading Stephen Spielberg's academy award-winning movie "Schindler's List" that was filmed in Krakow of course, at this factory. Moving. Mostly, though...we just putted around the city enjoying the day and the city. The bike tour:  We went thru the old Jewish ghetto and across the river to the Schlinder Factory.

"Locks of love" on the pedestrian bridge

Just a random pig floating upside down in the river....😂

View of Wavel castle from the bike path

After a stop at a cigar bar for a stogie to squirrel-away for the upcoming Croatian beaches, we decided to start happy hour around 4-ish at one of the dozens of cafes\outdoor bars surrounding the central square for a few chillies and to people-watch.

Turns out we were sitting right next to a large group of well-oiled Englishmen who had flown in from London for "Big Teezy's" bachelor stag party.  They immediately latched on to us and it was on. Seems that Krakow is a favorite destination for stag parties and it's also tradition for all the guys to wear matching T-shirts especially printed up to be sure to humiliate the groom. This bunch had each of their nicknames on the back of their T-shirts which, of course we had to hear the history of each. There was actually another group of eight at the next table with matching red shirts but they had apparently just arrived so the beers and shots were just starting to flow. Lots of fun and reminded us that there's nothing quite like having a few pints with our friends from the motherland.

Another stag party on our way back to the hotel.

Had a final polish dinner and then returned to the hotel, picked up our stored luggage and caught a taxi to the train station for our 2202 overnight train to Prague, Czech Republic. This train was modern, clean and, unlike Russia, it had a private bathroom with shower. But, it was VERY compact and after finding spots to store our considerable luggage it was even tighter. For some reason, there were Americans on both sides of us so our little compartment became the gathering spot for a nightcap and story-telling. Crossed out of the polish border about midnight and rolled into Prague at 0900...ready to see if this city could possibly top Krakow. We'll see!

A rather large bowl of soup!

Andrea ordered the trout..not quite what were used to and promptly traded meals with Bill. 

We dined seated on the patio of the restaurant, very charming.